Take the Two: Round 10
NRL Round 10 under the microscope
If the beer’s cold and the afternoon’s long enough, we’d be talking footy all day, every day until kickoff on Thursday night. With so much to review each week, let’s break down some of the key plays each week in the NRL.
Wests Tigers vs Brisbane Broncos
Last week’s scrappy win over the Bulldogs gave Broncos’ fans some confidence going into Saturday clash against Wests, but any hopes of a mid-season turn around were dashed inside the first ten minutes, as Harry Grant and the Tigers picked apart Brisbane’s defence with apparent ease.
It’s no wonder Grant’s name was echoing across Leichhardt Oval when he came for a spell in the 64th minute, having run 117 meters on his way to a try - along with 39 tackles - in another dominant performance.
We’ve already sung praises about Grant’s ruck control and game management from dummy-half, something that Cameron Smith has made a career of down in Melbourne over the last decade or so.
Smith was at it again on Friday night, throwing this picture-perfect cut-out pass to get Jahrome Hughes outside his man, as Gold Coast’s outside backs had been jamming in all night:
With just one pass, Smith turns a five-on-four situation into a three-on-one, with poor Treymain Spry left to stop Hughes, Brenko Lee or Paul Momirovski on the edge.
Fast-forward to Saturday night, and when Grant spots an overlap down the same edge and pulls the trigger on first tackle, his countless hours served as Smith’s apprentice paid dividends as the similarities were laid bare for all to see:
Off a mid-field scrum, the Tigers stack five players in shape down their right edge, where the Broncos’ have four defenders.
Sounding familiar?
Picking the ball up from lock, Grant drifts across field slightly and sees Anthony Milford and Darius Boyd have come up early to cut off the space.
In a split second, Grant sums up the situation and throws a bullet cut-out across the two Brisbane defenders, again turning a five-on-four into a three-on-one with a single pass.
Clinical.
We won’t be the only ones talking about Grant this week, but until he stops embarrassing opposition defenders for fun, you’ll excuse us for harping on:
When Adam Doueihi skipped across field in the 15th minute, tired Brisbane defenders sat back as he engaged Milford at three-defender.
Watching live, you might’ve noticed Ben Te’o (starting in the back-row for the first time this season) showing signs of fatigue when he doesn’t help Milford make the tackle.
Grant certainly did.
Te’o fills into Milford’s usual position at A-defender on the short-side, and when Grant looks to send the ball back in-field, the tired back-rower thinks his job is done and is slow to get up off his line:
Grant spots this and darts back down the short side straight at the out-of-position Te’o for a sneaky individual try:
Te’o switched off for less than half-a-second, and Grant had the vision, awareness and ability to capitalise on the mistake.
It is this kind of clinical execution, just 10 games into his NRL career, that has us all drawing similarities between Grant and agurably the greatest hooker of all time. We’ll all be watching very closely to see how - and where - Grant’s career plays out from next season onwards.
Canberra Raiders vs Sydney Roosters
When Josh Hodgson’s knee gave way last weekend you could almost hear the collective sighs of the Canberra faithful, as his injury threatened to derail the Green Machine’s 2020 campaign.
Michael Ennis, who works for the Raiders as a coaching consultant, said at the time that Jack Wighton must make the team his own moving forward if Canberra are a chance this year, and his effort on Thursday night was as good a place to start.
With the Roosters in red-hot form - and all the excitement of a Grand Final rematch adding to the hype - many pundits gave Canberra no hope considering their horrific injury toll.
But led by a typical high-energy, high-effort performance from Wighton, the Raiders muscled up to hand the Sydney Roosters their fourth loss of the year.
His involvement in the lead up to Dunamis Lui’s opening try highlighted Wighton’s importance to the Raiders, particularly in the absence of Hodgson’s play making abilities.
Defending his line early in the game, Wighton rushes up to make a strong one-on-one tackle on Kyle Flanagan, shutting down a Roosters’ right-edge raid:
Wighton gets to his feet, his job not done, and from marker makes a play at Jake Friend, forcing an error and winning his team possession.
In the ensuing set, Wighton takes a scything carry down the left edge, breaking the line and scrambling the Roosters’ defence:
He fights to earn a quick play-the-ball and while the Roosters attempt to reset, Joseph Tapine finds an offload and Lui dives over under the posts:
Wighton won’t feature on the highlights package for this try, but without his involvement in the lead-up, Canberra would never have been in a position to score first points.
While he doesn’t have the ball playing or game management skills of other premier halves in the competition, Wighton’s effort and energy, on both sides of the ball, is what makes him so crucial to Canberra’s hopes this season.
There’s Always Next Week for…
…the Parramatta Eels.
If Canberra’s win against the Roosters on Thursday wasn’t the upset of the season so far, then Manly’s ambush of competition heavyweights Parramatta Eels on Sunday afternoon surely comes close.
Still missing Tom Trbojevic, Dylan Walker and Addin Fonua-Blake among others, the Sea Eagles needed all the wily abilities of coach Des Hasler and captain Daly Cherry-Evans to get the win and stay within sight of the top eight, following a string of losses.
Cherry-Evans in particular stood tall, dictating proceedings with over 600 kick meters on the night including a perfect grubber for Joel Thompson to score, while he stood up Shaun Lane on the goal line for a soft individual try.
Manly’s first half dominance led to four tries from just 12 tackles inside Parramatta’s 20-meter line, where the Eels’ goal-line defence was uncharacteristically poor.
Manly showed enough defensive grit to hold onto their early lead in a typical Hasler-inspired performance, finishing on the right side of the scoreboard despite missing more tackles, running for less meters and conceding more penalties than Parramatta.
For the Eels, whatever Brad Arthur said to his men at half time turned the tide, with the coach watching from the sideline as Parramatta fought back to win the second half 14-0.
With Mitchell Moses, Blake Ferguson and Ryan Matterson all expected back next week it is hardly dire straits for the Eels, who have showcased good depth and resilience in recent weeks with several stars missing.
Reed Mahoney continues to impress in his development as a first-grade hooker, Clint Gutherson refuses to shy away from the big moments, and Michael Jennings is somehow in career best form at 32 years of age.
Yet ability to turn around a 18-4 shutout in the first 40-minutes was most impressive, and will give the Eels’ plenty of confidence going into the back end of the season.